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IlrnTn STATES PATET Tries,

STANLEY CHARLES CUTHBERT OURRIE, OF MONTREAL, CANADA, ASSIGNOR TO HIMSELF, AND EDWARD N. DIOKERSON, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

METHOD OF TREATING METALLIC ORES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 604,167, dated May 17, 1898.

- Application filed February 19, 1897.

To aZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, STANLEY CHARLES OUTH- BERT CURRIE, a subject of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain, and a resident of the city of Montreal, in the Dominion of Canada, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Method of Treating Metallic Ores, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact specification of the same.

This invention relates to the treatment of metallic ores by the use of chlorin as a solvent,

and has for its object the application of the chlorin to the ores in a form which increases the rapidity of its action and its efficiency as a solvent, and by a ready and simple treatment of both roasted and unroasted ores decreases the relative cost as compared with methods now employed. The solution employed contains the chlorin in a form that does away with the necessity of using acids to liberate the gas and of itself immediately neutralizes any acid which is formed by its action upon the ores. It also does away with the presence of useless and deleterious salts and compounds, such as lime, in the present chlorination process and enables chlorin to exert its most powerful and direct action in dissolving the metals contained in the ores. Sulfuric acid and chlorid of lime as employed in the usual chlorination process are both expensive and cumbersome, and a large amount of useless and objectionable sulfates is formed, which hinders the action of the chlorin. There is also a large and unnecessary amount of chlorids in the solution in the first instance.

My solution consists of essentially an aqueous solution containing free chlorin, a proportion of hypochlorite, and sufficient chlorid to retain the hypochlorite. It is well known that upon forming a hypochlorite by passing chlorin into a solution of caustic alkali a certain amount of chlorid is always formed. It is this unavoidable amount of chlorid which is here specified. In the simplest and cheapest form I prefer salts of sodium or potassium, such a solution containing chlorin up to saturation-point of absorption, together with an amount of hypochlorite depending upon the nature of the ore, and, as already stated, a certain amount of chlorid.

Serial No. 624,276. (No specimens.)

I have found that a solution containing available chlorin in the form of free chlorin to that of chlorin in the form of hypochlorite in the proportion of three and one-half to one 5 5 is a very effective solution on various ores.

I may employ any convenient method of obtaining or applying the chlorin gas and of combining the same with any alkaline solution so long as I obtain the necessary combination. It has been found that this solution attacks raw pulverized ores, also roasted ores without the addition of acid. It has, moreover, the advantage over ordinary chlorin water or chlorin applied to ores moistened with water that any acid formed by the action of the chlorin on organic substances, for example, is at once neutralized by the hypochlorite.

In applying my solution the ordinary chlorination drums may be employed or any other suitable apparatus, which should be preferably closed.

Having now described my invention, what I claim, and desire to cover by Letters Pat- 'ent, is

1. The process of extracting metals from their ores, which consists in treating the ore with a solution containing free chlorin and a hypochlorite, the former being in excess of the chlorin in the latter, substantially as. described.

2. The process of extracting metals from their ores, which consists in treating the ore with a weak caustic solution which has been saturated with chlorin, whereby the free chlorin is in excess of the chlorin in the hypo chlorite, substantially as described.'

3. The process of extracting metals from their ores, which consists in treating the ore with a solution containing free chlorin,ahypochlorite and a chlorid, the free chlorin being in excess of the chlorin in the hypochlorite, and also in excess of the chlorin in the chlorid, substantially as described.

4:. The new combination of matter, useful as a solvent for metals and metallic ores, consisting in a solution containing essentially free chlorin and a hypochlorite, the former being in excess of the chlorin in the latter, substantially as described.

5. The new combination of matter, useful as a solvent for metals and metallic ores, consisting in a solution containing free chlorin, a hypochlorite, and a chlorid, the free chlorin being in excess of the chlorin in the hypochlorite, and also in excess of the chlorin in the chloricl, substantially as described.

6. The new combination of matter, useful as a solvent for metals and metallic ores,

consisting in an aqueous solution containing 7 free chlorin and ahypochlorite, in which the 10 proportion of the former to the chlorin in the latter is not less than three parts to one, substantially as described.

STANLEY CHARLES OUTHBllRT CURRIE.

Witnesses:

HANBURY A; BUDDEN, E. STAFFORD. 

